Panama: a metro launched at full speed

07/04/2014

In Panama City, the capital of the country with the same name, the new metro system delivered by Alstom has been attracting a lot of attention since 5 April, the date of its official inauguration in the presence of the President of the Republic of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, local authorities and representatives of Alstom Transport, including Michel Boccaccio, Senior Vice-President Latin America.

Alstom Transport mobilized all its know-how for this project: up to 150 Alstom employees provided on site engineering, installation and integration for the entry into service of the system, including the supply of 57 metro cars and the CBTC* train control system. They also conducted all the tests on the system beginning in October 2013.

Before their arrival in Panama, the 19 vehicles crossed several of the world’s seas. Built on the Santa Perpetua site, near Barcelona in Spain, the train sets sailed on a cargo from the port of Tarragona, crossing the Mediterranean, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, before finally entering the Panama Canal. A journey made possible by the Exceptional Transportation teams.

After this first successful reference, Alstom Transport intends to establish a long-term presence in the country: the city of Panama could soon entrust it with the system’s maintenance and is expected to shortly launch a tender to build a second metro line. Watch this space.